Digital preservation is a series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for the highest utility—and for as long as possible or necessary. Archivists work to save bits and bytes beyond the limits of media failure, software obsolescence, and technological change. The phrase “digital preservation,” however, has been questioned because it may not sufficiently describe what needs to occur for digital materials to be accessible over time.

In this new era, we are creating principles that apply to digitized and born-digital materials, while continuing to acquire, store, and provide access to physical records of enduring value.

If you are the keeper of family history items that you believe could be of interest to scholars, you may wish to donate them to an institution where they will be archived and available for others to use.

Photo editing and research are time-consuming and detail-oriented. The work requires multiple emails per image as permissions, fees, and usage are negotiated. Captions and credits are unique to each image and must be tracked as well. Take the number of images you’d like for a project and imagine the number of interactions you’d need to secure usage. It adds up quickly. Authors are interested in getting the content of their projects correct. They don’t need the added complexity of securing image permissions.

As a Certified Archivist, a Certified Records Manager, and an Information Governance Professional, I help my clients to benefit from their information, from its creation, use, storage, and disposition. Working with a skilled consultant gives you peace of mind that your data is always ready to be leveraged throughout its life cycle.

As our understanding of digital preservation, curation, and stewardship matures, archivists and other information professionals have begun to question some of our assumptions about preservation. To address current needs, the practices we have developed and taken for granted for decades are transforming in the digital environment.

In this new era, we are creating principles that apply to digitized and born-digital materials, while continuing to acquire, store, and provide access to physical records of enduring value.

As you reflect on your life, what moments or thoughts would you like to save? What about some of your family members? Wouldn’t you like to record their opinions on their lives?

Open-ending questions about people’s life experiences yield surprising results. Use these questions to record your thoughts, or start a conversation with a relative. When possible, record the interview on audio or video.

When you’ve identified a source that’s of interest and relevance to your research, you should subject it to critical evaluation. As you review it, ask yourself why the work was needed, what its analysis was, and how the author interpreted the results. Most importantly, what’s your interpretation of the results?

Feedback provides information and advice. It’s offered in a variety of settings, such as part of your supervision, during presentations at conferences, while teaching, or when working as part of a team. Whatever the environment, feedback is a highly productive way of developing yourself and your skills.

As with many archival projects, large institutions lead the way to new discoveries, workflows, and practices. Discussions about digital preservation have been too frequently (but understandably) presented in terms that apply only to large, well-funded institutions.